The diversity
and richnees of the culture inheritance of Vela Luka can be
seen in the exceptional museum and gallery that are located
in the Center for Culture in the centre of the town. The premises
of the Centre are located in the building that was built for
school needs in the second half of the 19 th centry, so that
building has historical significance. The building is located
near the Parish Church of St. Joseph, so they together create
a magnificent architectonic/urbanism structure and offer a
typical Mediterranean spirit. You enter the museum /gallery
premises from the inner court of the atrium of the Centre
for Culture, and atrium is decorated with mosaics made in
1968 when the International Artist Meeting of painters was
held in Vela Luka.

The
following is presented in the musseum and the gallery.-The Archeological Collection of finds from the historical
locality of the Big Cave and antique funds (ceramic dishes,
animal and human bones, antique amphora)
-The International Art Collection of drawings, graphic arts,
and smaller statues from native artists (Murtic, Picelj, Ujevic)
and foreign artists (Soto, Hayer, Messagier),
-Two sculpture of Henry Moore,
-A Collection of ship models by Nedo Gugic,
-The Ethnographic Collection of objects from El Shatt,
-Folk costumes from Vela Luka.

Cultural
events in Vela Luka are being held in the atrium of the citadel:-smaller concerts, concerts of folk music singers, book
promotions, exhibitions of native and foreign artists.

The
museum and gallery premises and whole ambience where these
interesting archeological and artistic collections are located
are certainly worth your visit.

The
events, which left a deep and lasting imprint in the cultural and
artistic life of Vela Luka in the second half of the 20th century,
were without any doubt, the International Artists Meetings initiated
in 1968. After the successful termination of the First International
Meeting, this small town received in permanent ownership nearly
seventy mosaics-tablets, a number of which was arranged and built
into a memorial mosaic-wall in the centre of Vela Luka, some given
to local companies and public institutions and the remaining later
fitted in to semicircular openings and the floor of the atrium of
the Cultural Centre, thus creating both an exhibition space and
the decor of the building which once housed the local school.
The idea of organizing the International Artists Meetings in Vela
Luka was born in 1967 and carried through in the organization of
the Community Education Centre and with the financial support of
business organizations from Vela Luka. The project envisaged the
joint creation of mosaics and it brought together a large number
of domestic and foreign artists. Their names are inscribed in the
mosaics located in the centre of Vela Luka.
The Second International Artists Meeting was held in 1970 with the
main objective of elaborating a tourists resort project in the Plitvine
cove with the participation of renowned artists and architects.
The Third Meeting was held in 1972 and focused on examing the operation
between professional artists and amateur-artists in the fields of
fine arts, music and drama arts on the one hand mass-media on the
other. The meetings not only enriched the urban environment of Vela
Luka, giving the local setting a new perception and generating an
enhanced sensitivity for artistic creativity but also enabled the
permanent displaying of large number of mosaics, paintings, drawings
and sketches in the town. In addition, they attracted the attention
of the media which covered the events both domestically and internationally.
Owing to the International Artists Meetings, Vela Luka gained international
acclaim. In the summer of 1978, a sweeping tsunami severely bamaged
the town prompting the sculptor Ante Marinovic, a native of Vela
Luka, to take action geared at helping his hometown. He initiated
the idea of donating a collection of drawings, graphics and small
sculptures to the town. His idea was met with exceptional response
on the part of numerous of artists who knew of Vela Luka thanks
to the international meetings of artists. It was then that Petar
Omcikus and Kosa Boksan, the initiators of the International Artists
Meetings, collected part of the future International Donors Collection
of Drawings, Graphics and Small Sculpture, exhibiting it first in
the gallery of the Cultural Centre in Paris in May 1979. The items
from the collection, together with other works of art collected
both at home and abroad were set up in the gallery of the Cultural
Centre in Vela Luka in the summer of 1981. Along with numerous valuable
works of art, two small sculptures by Henry Moore dominate the collection.
Because of the war in Croatia (1991-1995), the permanent display
of the International Collection of Drawings, Graphics and Small
Sculptures was taken down in 1992.
The project of staging this collection once again was carried out
in July 2002 with the financial support of the Vela Luka local authorities.
The collection comprises of a large number of works by renown domestic
(Murtic, Picelj, Krsinic, Ujevic...) and foreign (Soto, Haynter,
Lindstrom, Messagier...) Artists. Since due to limited exhibition
space the complete International Collection cannot be shown at once,
the display will undergo occasional changes.

Nedjeljko Gugic-Kotarac,
a self-taught artist-wood-carver, worked upon his own old drafts,
books, illustrations of models of historical ships (from Greek vessels
and naves liburnae, to vessels of Dubrovnik, and to big vessels)
and he was the owner, as some journalists wrote, of the biggest
"Fleet on the Adriatic". "Barba Nedo" (uncle
Nedo), as the people of Vela Luka called him kindly, worked for
some time, between the two World Wars, at the "Adriatic Guard"
in Split, making models of historical vessels. His work was appreciated
among experts, so that some of his samples of models of his vessels
can be found in the maritime museums of Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik.
He regularly participated at the "Fair of Fishery and Shipping
in Zadar" with his "Fleet" during the sixties. The
community government in Vela Luka at the time bought the vessel
models with the intention to exhibit them in the future museum sample
for display. After the display of the museum collection in Vela
Luka, Barba Nedo worked there and he was its first keeper. He made
small vessel models as souvenirs for the tourist offer, as well.
The vessel models of Barba Nedo Gugic are the part of the heritage
of Vela Luka and their renewed display is a contribution to the
promotion of our cultural wealth and the perseverance of our identity.
Barba Nedo searched for the motives for his vessels among different
sources, and he was equally inspired by domestic paragons as well
as samples from exotic countries. Some details of the vessels are
profilic of the imagination of the author, and some samples are
not realistic, but in whole, the vessels of Barba Nedo can not help
but to fascinate with its beautiful oars and sails and small wolf
heads, birds etc., as the people of Vela Luka would say.

The fascination
is in the time spent to make every particular vessel, the patience
and the feeling for details. The author did, with his way of work,
inspire every of his vessel models with indentity and exemption.
The fleet of Barba Nedo "sailed" from the oblivion after
many years and "entered" into the regular museum display
of the Centre for Culture.

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For
more information and details, please, do not hesitate to contact
us.